Sunday, June 29, 2014

Another NHL draft is in the books, and if the commentary
during the televised proceedings yesterday was any indication, all 30 teams
will be contending for a Stanley Cup in a few years.Meanwhile, the cousins and I watched with a
keen eye as the Caps drafted five wingers and a goalie, and we have a few
comments of our own.

That’s right… five wingers and a goalie.And they traded up to get that goalie, then
traded up again to get a winger with the pick they got in return and… an AHL
goalie.

Caps fans are generally of a mind that the team’s needs do
not generally involve wingers or goalies, but rather defensemen and
centers.Here are the details…

Round 1/13th overall: Jakub Vrana (LW/RW)

Round 2/39th overall: Vitek Vanecek (G).The Caps held the 44th overall
pick in the second round but traded it, and the 74th overall pick in
the third round, to Buffalo for the 39th overall pick, with which
they selected Vanecek.

Round 3/89th overall: Nathan Walker (LW).The Caps traded back into the third round by shipping
off their two fourth round spots (104th and 118th
overall) to the New York Rangers for the 89th overall pick, with
which they selected Walker.

Round 4: no pick in this round.

Round 5/134th overall: Shane Gersich (LW)

Round 6/159th overall: Steven Spinner (C/RW).The Caps moved up with a trade, but the pick
did not appear to be the reason.Washington moved their sixth round pick (164th overall), one
of two seventh round picks (192nd overall), and a seventh round pick
in 2015 to Winnipeg for this pick and Eddie Pasquale, a goaltender who played
for the St. John’s IceCaps for the past three seasons.

Round 7/194th overall: Kevin Elgestal (RW)

So there it is, your 2014 Washington Capitals Draft
Class. Now, to the particulars...

Washington Capitals fans being
the way they are, there will be much rending of garments and gnashing of teeth over
the next few days, so guys… rend and gnash away.Let’s start with the top pick, Jakub Vrana.

Fearless:No rending
or gnashing here, cousin.True, the Capitals
expressed a view before the draft that you need to draft your centers.And, if you look at the Caps’ organization,
top to bottom, the only incumbent or prospect top-six center is Nicklas
Backstrom, drafted in 2006.Re-signing
Mikhail Grabovski would address that issue in the short term, but the club
still has the long term issue of who will be a top-six center 3-5 years down
the road.

That said, was there a center available at 13 that the Caps
might have reasonably selected ahead of Vrana?The obvious comparisons are Dylan Larkin, taken two spots later by the
Detroit Red Wings, Nick Schmaltz, taken 20th by the Chicago
Blackhawks, and Robert Fabbri, taken 21st by the St. Louis
Blues.NHL Central Scouting had all
three ranked in the 17-21 range among North American Skaters.On the other hand, Vrana was ranked fourth
among European skaters.Two of the three
ahead of him (William Nylander and Kevin Fiala) had already been selected.

If the club is going to go for the best player available and
not for position need, this is what happens.

Cheerless:Oh…yeah.What is it with this team and European
wingers in early rounds? Since 2010… Evgeny Kuznetsov, Stanislav Galiev, Filip
Forsberg, Andre Burakovsky, and now Vrana.The good is that he has a “very good offensive mind and is hungry from
circles down in offensive zone. Good shot and is a player you have to respect
because he can score or make a play. Ability to be dangerous quickly. One shot
and score capability.”On the other hand, he “has experienced some
bouts of inconsistency in his game and has yet to really develop the defensive
awareness that scouts were hoping for…” Gosh, now who does he sound like?Maybe another 13th overall draft
pick?...

Peerless:If Caps
fans thought that there was going to be a sea change in draft philosophy with
the departure of George McPhee, consider this pick pretty solid evidence that
it isn’t happening, at least not to start.Go back through the Caps’ "first" first round picks dating from the
selection of Alex Ovechkin in 2004: Ovechkin, Sasha Pokulok, Nicklas Backstrom,
Karl Alzner, Anton Gustafsson, Marcus Johansson, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Filip
Forsberg, Andre Burakovsky, and now Vrana.The progression has been toward drafting skilled European forwards with
that first pick available.One would
like to think (or, more precisely, hope) that the recent picks – Kuznetsov,
Burakovsky, Vrana – will develop into top-six wingers.But the history before that in “first” first
round picks is checkered, especially past the lottery picks.There are, of course, no certainties in the
draft, even in the first round.There
are no guarantees, either, but this pick is not outside what we have come to
know about drafting by the Caps over the last decade.The takeaway here might not be the player as
much as the process and whether it reflects a business-as-usual approach or a
new direction.

Next up…goalies.Guys, the Caps got two goalies out of this draft, one drafted and the
other obtained in a trade that swapped picks.Any thoughts?

This year, Vitek Vanecek.And, they used two picks to move up five spots to get him.The eighth-ranked European goalie by NHL
Central Scouting.Not one of the seven
ahead of him was taken earlier.The
first of the seven ranked ahead of Vanecek was taken 61st overall,
100 spots later, give or take (22, actually).How about some
comparisons.Last year’s eighth-ranked
CSS goaltender was Rene Svoboda.He was
not drafted.In 2012 it was Igor
Ustinsky…undrafted.2011: Nicklas
Lundstrom… fifth round by St. Louis.2010: Pavel Francouz…undrafted.2009: Benjamin Conz…undrafted.Why
Vanecek, why burn a draft pick to move up five spots, and did the Caps think
that any of Ottawa, New Jersey, Nashville, or Arizona were going to pick
him?None of them picked a goaltender as
it turned out, the Caps being the last of four teams to pick a goalie in the
span of six spots.They really loved
this guy.

Fearless:Let’s go
back a few years, to Draft Day 2010.The
Caps held the 116th overall pick in the fourth round.They saw a goalie they wanted, so they
packaged that pick and the 146th pick (fifth round) and sent them to
the Toronto Maple Leafs to move up… four spots.They used that pick on Philipp Grubauer, who Caps fans seem to like these days, four years later.Was Montreal, New Jersey, or Vancouver
salivating over Grubauer in 2010?And, if your
memory is cloudy, Grubauer was the 15th ranked North American goalie
in that draft (he was playing for Windsor in the OHL).

Peerless:The “how”
and the “who” are two entirely distinct issues here.The latter first.Clearly the Caps saw something in Vitek
Vanecek, but what?Or, perhaps more
precisely, “when?”Let’s start with the
fact that he was the eighth-ranked European goalie.He actually dropped a spot from the Central
Scouting mid-term rankings.Central
Scouting is but one scouting source, but it does speak to a lack of volatility
in his ranking, that he was not a highly ranked goalie who had a bad second
half of the year.On the other hand, no
goalie in the 2014 World U-18 tournament faced more shots than did Vanecek (194
in seven games), and no goalie played more minutes (437).His overall statistics were not noteworthy
(2.74 GAA, .897 save percentage), but he was sturdy enough to help the Czechs
to a silver medal.

As to the “how,” that is the curious part.First, let’s not make too much out of burning
that third round pick in the package to move up and get Vanecek.Remember, this was not thought to be a
particularly deep draft, so a third rounder in 2014 might not have the value of
a 2013 third rounder (74th overall pick: John Hayden) or a 2015
third rounder, for that matter.That
said, burning a draft pick for a goalie, even if the Caps have a recent history
of this, appears odd.Look at the
goalies for this year’s Stanley Cup semi-finalsts.Jonathan Quick was a third rounder (72nd
overall) in 2005.Henrik Lundqvist
was a seventh rounder in 2000.Carey
Price was a first rounder – a fifth overall pick in 2005, as a matter of fact –
but Corey Crawford was a second round pick in 2003.Looking at it from another perspective, one
can find capable goalies in most any year in or after the second round:

2007: none…a really bad year for goalies; none drafted have
played as many as a dozen NHL games

2008: Braden Holtby (93rd)

2009: Robin Lehner (46th), Darcy Kuemper, 161st,
and for that matter, Eddie Pasquale (117th), the guy the Caps
obtained in a later trade on draft day that involved swapping picks

Goalies can be found in the draft. Maybe Vanacek is the one
who makes this list a few years from now, maybe not.But goalies can be found without expending
draft picks.That said, we get the Caps
taking a goalie.They do this every year
(more “same of the same”).It is the trading
up and burning a pick to do it that is confounding.Perhaps Vanecek is the next Michal Neuvirth
(taken 34th in 2006, 159 NHL games, including playoffs).Or maybe he is the next Jeff Frazee (taken 38th
by New Jersey in 2005, one NHL game played).We won’t know for a while.Keep
in mind, Philipp Grubauer was drafted in 2010, and only now, with the 2014-2015
season approaching, are we thinking of him as the full-time starter with the
Hershey Bears and possibly a back-up in Washington.

What did you guys think about the rest of the draft?

Fearless:Well, it
seems every pick has a story.Nathan
Walker, born in Wales, raised in Australia, played in the Czech Republic, took
a turn in the Caps’ development camp in 2013, signed with Hershey last season. His
is quite a journey.Shane Gersich has a
pretty good pedigree, what with the Broten brothers being uncles. Steven Spinner is a high-schooler, but his selection
might the understory of that pick.The
Caps got a backup for Grubauer in Hershey as part of the trade for the pick
that netted Spinner.It seems only Kevin
Elgestal lacks a story line as the Caps’ last pick in the 2014 draft.

Cheerless:zzzzzzzzzzz…

Peerless:Guess
yesterday was just too much for him.Actually, Fearless, you missed a story line with young Mr.
Elgestal.When he was taken with the 194th
pick, the Caps continued a curious avoidance of drafting Canadians.Going back over their last 19 picks dating
back to the selection of Thomas DiPauli (USA) with the 100th overall
pick in 2012, the Caps drafted only three Canadians – Jaynen Rissling (2012),
Madison Bowey (2013), and Tyler Lewington (2013).In the meantime, the Caps have taken nine
Americans among those 19 picks:

Thomas DiPauli

Austin Wuthrich

Connor Carrick

Riley Barber

Zach Sanford

Blake Heinrich

Brian Pinho

Shane Gersich

Steven Spinner

The Caps have not taken more than two Canadians in any draft
since 2009 (four).We don’t want to make
too much of that other than being just one of the trivial story lines that
attach to the draft.

In the end…

This draft looks like any other of those since the 2004-2005
lockout for the Caps.Of the 67 draft
picks taken from 2005 through last year, the Caps selected:

15 centers, three of whom would be moved to wing (Filip
Forsberg, Marcus Johansson, Evgeny Kuznetsov), five of whom were taken in the
first round (Forsberg, Johansson, Kuznetsov, Nicklas Backstrom, and Anton
Gustafsson)

20 wingers, two of whom were taken in the first round (Andre
Burakovsky, Tom Wilson)

24 defensemen, four of whom were taken in the first round
(two of whom are cornerstones – John Carlson and Karl Alzner – two of whom are
not…Sasha Pokulok and Joe Finley)

8 goaltenders, one of whom was taken in the first round
(Semyon Varlamov)

This year, five forwards (no pure centers) and a
goalie.Although the team seems to have
the idea that you need to draft your centers, for the nine drafts preceding
this one the Caps have not found an answer to their hole at center except for a
lottery pick in 2006 (Backstrom).In
those same nine drafts they have not addressed persistent lack of depth on
defense, either.It would seem that 2014 is no
different.That is not necessarily a bad
thing, especially when you consider that none of the players drafted this past
weekend are likely to contribute to the big club for years to come, if at
all.However, not having done so in
previous drafts reduces the Caps to having to fill such deficiencies years later
through trades or free agent signings.That has not worked, either.The
holes remain from positions not being adequately addressed in drafts past.

Yesterday was not about filling holes in the here and now,
in 2014.It was about what this team
might look like in 2019, although it still looks like it has a hole in the
middle.It did serve as a reminder that
there are those holes that need filling now and that there is a lot of work to
be done over the next three months to opening night of the 2014-2015 season.For the future, we are left with hope that
actions taken yesterday bear fruit five years from now.

Tuesday, June 24, 2014

It’s time for The Peerless’ peerless prognostication for the
2014 NHL Entry Draft.The draft, which
will be held this Friday and Saturday in the cheesesteaky, soft pretzelly goodness that is south
Philadelphia at CoreStates/First Union/Wachovia/Wells Fargo Center, is a
celebration of hope, an orgy of optimism, a carnival of cheerfulness.

Actually, we eagerly anticipate the reception the Phans of
Philly will bestow upon Commissioner Gary Bettman as he confidently strides to
the podium to announce the first overall selection.If those folks would boo Santa Claus, well,
it should be entertaining.

The object of the exercise, though, is for 30 young men to
model the latest in NHL on-ice fashion as those chosen in the first round of the
draft.And so we offer you our
scientific take* on who will go where when the teams take their turns on the
clock on Friday night. When the booing
of the Commish fades, here is how the first round will unfold.

This looks like a draft that has no “generational” player,
but rather a consistently well thought of top-five in Ekblad, Reinhart,
Draisaitl, Bennett and Dal Colle.Ekblad
was the consensus first overall pick in the mock drafts we looked at, and Dal
Colle showed up almost without exception at number five.In between the other three players jockeyed
for position, but almost without exception were in the 2-4 slots.

As for the Capitals, they will likely be in a no-man’s land
part of the draft.The 11-15
neighborhood since the 2004-2005 lockout has produced such players as Anze Kopitar (11th
overall in 2005), Ryan McDonagh (12th overall in 2007), and Erik
Karlsson (15th overall in 2008), stars all.It has also offered up Marek Zagrapan (13th
overall in 2005), Kyle Beach (11th overall in 2008), and Derek
Forbort (15th overall in
2010), none of whom have dressed for an NHL game to date.

Over that same period the Caps have had only one draft pick
in this neighborhood, that being Sasha Pokulok (selected 15th
overall) in 2005.Even though the lack
of changes in the front office make the Caps’ recent draft history more
relevant than it might be if there had been wholesale changes, there just is
not a lot to go on here.

Kevin Fiala fell out of the chute to the Caps on the basis
of the way we compiled the assorted mock drafts, not as the product of keen
analysis (hey, did that ever stop us?).But this pick does make some sense.The under-25 group at left wing at the moment look to be Marcus
Johansson (a converted center), Evgeny Kuznetsov (who might be called upon to
play center, given the Caps lack of organizational depth at the position), and
Andre Burakovsky.And after the top
three centers in this draft (Reinhart, Bennett, and Draisaitl) the talent seems
to drop off quite a bit.

As for defense, another position on the Caps’ “to-fill”
list, it would appear that Julius Honka would be available if the team chooses
to go in that direction.His would be a
logical pick here for similar reasons to those of Fiala.While both are a bit undersized for their
position, they share a quality that seems to be gaining importance in the way
the game is being played in the NHL – speed.For example, Goran srubb, NHL Director of European Scouting said of Fiala…

"He impressed with his explosive skating, great
puck-handling skills and overall quickness and speed. He has great offensive
instincts and is full of surprises in the offensive zone…”

“Let’s just say that when you go to a game and you see his
name in the lineup, you’re excited to watch the game because he’s got about
four or five different gears. You think he’s just skating normally and he puts
it in another gear, then another gear…”

There are a host of other concrete reasons to look hard at
Honka as well.Whether Fiala or Honka, both
have size issues, but the Capitals had one of the bigger teams in the NHL in
recentseasons.It has not been a
harbinger of success.

* If by “scientific”
you mean “look at a bunch of other mock drafts and mash them all up.”

We were rummaging through some odd posts we made on some other Web sites before we became respectable and established this site that is read by several each day. One of them was our take on the 2006 draft, the one that netted the Caps Nicklas Backstrom in the first round. We prognostified something, well...different. Which is to say...ok, "stupid" in a number of cases...

The Peerless Prognosticator is ON THE AIR! Yes, he’s back,
he’s rested, he’s as incomprehensible as ever. And for your edification,
enjoyment, and excitement, he brings you the only mock draft you’ll ever need.
The Peerless prefaces all of this by remarking that he has seen exactly NONE of
these players in person, but it’s not like he’s going to get fired for any
especially boneheaded picks (but being Peerless, we don’t have to worry about
that, do we?). So, here we go . . . as always, do not use these picks for any
cash wagers, it just cuts into my take . . .

1. St. Louis . . . “With the first pick overall in the 2006
National Hockey League Amateur Entry Draft, the St. Louis Blues select . . .
defenseman, Erik Johnson.” Well, that was a surprise, wasn’t it? He’s at the
top of just about every meaningful prospect list. Who am I to argue?

2. Pittsburgh . . . Phil Kessel, C. If the Penguins draft
any more centers, they’ll start to look like the center-crazed Flyers. Kessel
can be a wing, he can be a thigh and a breast, he can be fryer parts for all
the Penguins care . . . they need a goal-scorer, and this guy also provides
insurance against a Malkin no-show.

3. Chicago . . . Jordan Staal, C. The Hawks would go for
Kessel, if available, but The Peerless, if you’ve read this far, has Kessel
gone by now. So, the Hawks go for a player with some degree of name
recognition. They need it; folks are starting to wonder if the Hawks have
moved.

STP . . . Chicago trades the #3 pick to Colorado for the
Avalanche's first and second picks this year and a first next year. Colorado
selects Staal, Chicago selects Artem Anisimov with the Avalanche pick.

4. Washington . . . Jonathan Toews, C. There is a temptation
to select Niklas Backstrom with this pick, but the Caps used their top three
picks last year -- Sasha Pokulok, Joe Finley, Andrew Thomas - on NCAA players.
Maybe it’s a GPA thing.

6. Columbus . . . Peter Mueller, C. This selection fulfills
a childhood desire to dress up in a red, white and blue sweater with a bug on
it.

STP . . . Columbus trades Jan Hrdina to Washington for
Dainius Zubrus. The trade hockey fans across the continent have been waiting
for over the past five years is finally consummated.

7. NY Islanders . . . Derick Brassard, C. Mike Milbury is
seen being physically restrained by Islanders staff in his efforts to get to
the podium and announce the selection of Eeku Heikkinen (The Peerless’ choice
for the best name in the draft). Fans can hear shrieks of ‘EEEEEEEEK-oo
EEEEEEEEK-oo” from the wings.

STP . . . The Islanders trade Alexei Yashin to the
California Golden Seals for a conditional draft pick. It is three days before
the league realizes there is a problem here.

8. Phoenix . . . Jiri Tlusty, LW. As Gary Bettman
experiences difficulty with the microphone, Wayne Gretzky offers assistance . .
. “you have to take the microphone thusly.” This is recorded as the Coyotes’
selection, and thusly, Tlusty is selected.

STP . . . Phoenix trades Paul Mara to Washington for the
Capitals’ two second round picks in this draft (34th and 35th overall picks),
just so Mara can hear Alex Ovechkin describe over and over how he scored that
goal after Mara was draped all over him last January.

9. Minnesota . . . Kyle Okposo, RW. Seems a pretty good fit
for Jacques Lemaire’s club. And, he hails from St. Paul. They can keep an eye
on him while he’s at U-Minn.

STP . . . The Wild trade Marian Gaborik to Atlanta for Andy
Sutton and Jim Slater, which will allow journalists to use the line all year,
“goal scored by Marian (Gaborik) from Marian (Hossa).

10. Florida . . . Bryan Little, C. It would figure that
Florida has four forwards (Roberts, Nieuwendyk, Gelinas, Stumpel) with an
average age of 37. The team meal is the early bird at Stuckey’s.

STP . . . Florida trades Roberto Luongo to Detroit for the
rights to the last production Hummer H1.

STP . . . Los Angeles trades this pick and an opportunity to
be adopted by Angelina Jolie to St. Louis for the #1 overall pick.

12. Atlanta . . . James Sheppard, LW. What with Peter Bondra
a sure bet to return to DC (...two, three, four), the Thrashers need to be
thinking about the future.

STP . . . Atlanta trades this pick to Carolina for Cory
Stillman in the hopes that the Cup will follow him around the Southeast
Division.

13. Toronto . . . Bob Sanguinetti, D. With Carlo Colaiacovo,
these two constitute the most inches of jersey name plate for defensemen in the
National Hockey League. If you can’t have a cup in 40 years, you can have
something.

STP . . . The Leafs don’t make any trades, secure in the
thought that they have all the ingredients they need to assume their rightful
place as Stanley Cup champions. Leafs’ personnel are led out of GM Place in
straight-jackets.

15. Tampa Bay . . . Jonathan Bernier, G. When the coach
kneecaps one goalie with his comments and doesn’t particularly want to play the
other one, you’ve got a “situation.” Tampa will be sniffing for a goalie in
trade or an FA, but they need a longer term solution, too.

16. Montreal . . . Nigel Williams, D. Montreal has a lot of
young guys, but seems to lack a guy to compliment Mike Komisarek as a physical
presence, and Williams seems to have more offensive upside.

STP . . . Montreal offers this pick, their first rounders
for the next three years, Chris Higgins, Alexander Perezhogin, and a brick from
the old Forum to Pittsburgh for Sidney Crosby. The Pens say, “no thanks,” but
do offer Shane Endicott for that package.

STP . . . The Ducks trade the term “mighty” for another
adjective . . . “dead,” “lame,” and “Peking” are rejected.

20. San Jose . . . Patrik Berglund, C. Insurance against
losing a top center down the road to free agency.

STP . . . No thanks, we’re fine.

21. NY Rangers . . . Chris Summers, D. Larry Brooks would
rather the Rangers just buy a forward as a long term strategy (he pretty much
makes this point in his blurb in The Hockey News). Hey, here’s an idea . . .
draft somebody.

24. Buffalo . . . Dennis Persson, D. Not a deep team at this
position, now or down the road. Unless you’re thinking “Norris” and “Nathan
Paetsch” should occupy the same sentence, in which case . . . seek help.

STP . . . A three way deal . . . Buffalo sends a 2-CD set of
highlights of their second round playoff series to Ottawa for an autographed
picture of John Muckler. Buffalo sends the picture to the Islanders for a puck
signed by Ted Nolan.

25. New Jersey . . . Ryan White, C. One of the class of
player referred to as “two way forward.” Calgary probably would have taken this
guy with the next pick . . . nyah, nyah.

30. St. Louis . . . Nick Foligno, LW. Pretty good blood
lines; his father was a gritty sort. With as much skill as the Blues need,
they’ll need this, too.

STP . . . Trade this pick and the #1 overall this year, plus
Timofei Shishkanov (who The Peerless picked solely on the basis of liking to
say, “Timofei Shishkanov”) and a 2007 second round pick to Pittsburgh for
Evgeni Malkin. Pittsburgh selects Erik Johnson and Eric Gryba.

And, the most intriguing player perhaps in this draft is a
6’2”, 180 pound center out of Russia described by Central Scouting as having
“excellent vision ... soft hands - a very good passer and playmaker … very good
puck control … has a good selection of shots. very good over-all skill level
…Physical, tall and hard working forward.” He is the 30th ranked European
skater at Central Scouting, perhaps a middle-round pick.

In looking at ten games that mattered to the Washington
Capitals in the 2013-2014 season, we covered those ten that mattered in the team’s
fortunes, and we covered those first five in the 2013 portion of the season that mattered
in terms of individual milestones.Now, we
close out the “Games That Mattered” series with games from the 2014 portion of
the season in which individual milestones were reached.

February 8, 2014: Washington 3 – New Jersey 0

When the Capitals hosted the New Jersey Devils on February 8th,
it would be their last game before the break for the Winter Olympic Games in
Sochi, Russia.The Caps were struggling
heading into the break, stuck in fourth place in the Metropolitan Division and
13th place in the Eastern Conference, but just three points out of
seventh place.Every point
mattered.They mattered to the Devils,
too, who were tied with the Caps in standings points.It meant that this game played like a playoff
game, or perhaps just a boring game.The
teams were scoreless through two periods, Braden Holtby stopping all 19 shots
he faced, and Cory Schneider turning aside all 16 shots coming his way.

Ten minutes of the third period elapsed without either team
lighting the lamp.Then, the Caps had a
faceoff in the Devils’ end to the left of Schneider.Nicklas Backstrom won the draw from Adam
Henrique back to Patrick Wey at the right point.Wey sent the puck D-to-D to Julien
Brouillette at the left point.Brouillette walked the puck down the left wing boards a couple of steps,
then wristed the puck at the New Jersey net.Martin Erat waved at the puck looking for a deflection but had the
effect of distracting Schneider just enough to allow the puck to sail by his
blocker and in for Brouillette’s first NHL goal.

That would be all that Holtby would need, but there were
still a couple of milestones to record.Martin Erat got his first goal of the season (only his second with the
Caps) into an empty net with 1:47 left.It was enough time for the Devils to pull their goalie again and for the
Caps to make them pay again.It started
with the Devils’ Marek Zidlicky trying to backhand the puck up ice from just
outside his own blue line to teammate Jon Merrill at the red line. Merrill and
the Caps’ Troy Brouwer jostled for the puck, Brouwer prying it out from
Merrill’s skates along the wall near the players’ bench and flipping it into the air toward
the Devils’ net.Zidlicky tried to knock
it out of mid-air, but swung and missed, the puck settling into the back of the
net for Brouwer’s 100th NHL goal in the 3-0 Caps win.

Photo: Patrick McDermott/NHLI via Getty Images

March 1, 2014: Washington 4 – Boston 2

The Caps embarked on what would be a grueling March schedule
by visiting the Boston Bruins, carrying a three-game winning streak to
Beantown.Things do not come easy for
visitors to Boston, but the Caps did have their highly-ranked power play in
their corner.It cashed in late in the
first period.If you ordered it in a
bar, you would have asked for “the usual.”In this case it was Nicklas Backstrom off the right wing wall to John
Carlson at the top of the offensive zone to Alex Ovechkin in the left wing
circle for a one-timer that beat goalie Tuukka Rask to the short side.It was Ovechkin’s 799th career
point.

He got number 800 early in the second period on another
power play.It was “the usual” with a twist.It started when goalie Braden Holtby skated
into the corner to his right to play the puck up the wall to Joel Ward.After skating the puck down the right wing to
the Boston blue line, Ward sent the puck to Marcus Johansson in the
middle.Johansson took a step in, then
backhanded a pass to Ovechkin at the top of the left wing circle for a
one-timer that knuckled over Rask’s left shoulder to give the Caps a 2-0 lead.

Then it was time for someone else to reach a milestone.Mid-way through the second period the Bruins
won a center ice faceoff.The puck came
back to Bruins defenseman Johnny Boychuk, who tried to slide it off to his
partner, Matt Bartkowski.However, Joel
Ward stepped between them and stole the puck, breaking in on Rask.As Ward skated in Rask overcommitted to his
left, leaving it only for Ward to pull the puck to his backhand and slide it
past Rask’s extended right pad to make it 3-0.It was Ward’s 18th goal of the season, setting a new career
high.It would be the game-winning tally
in the Caps’ 4-2 win over the Bruins.

Photo: Alex Trautwig/Getty Images

March 5, 2014: Philadelphia 6 – Washington 4

The Caps win over Boston on March 1st tied their
longest winning streak of the season – four games.It did not get to five.The Philadelphia Flyers put an end to the fun
with a 5-4- overtime win on March 2nd in which the Caps blew a 4-2
lead in the third period.The Caps had a
chance to get even in the back half of the home-and-home in Philadelphia on
March 5th.

It did not go well, especially at first.The Flyers jumped out to a 4-0 lead before
the game was 32 minutes old, chasing starting goaltender Braden Holtby. Then
the Caps mounted a charge.Barely two
minutes after the Flyers’ fourth goal the Caps scored on a power play.It was an innocent enough looking play,
starting when Jason Chimera took the puck off the left wing wall and passed it
out to Alex Ovechkin at the left wing point.Ovechkin passed across to Mike Green at the opposite point where Green
faded back and wristed a shot at the Flyers’ net.Goalie Steve Mason seemed to have the shot
lined up, but defenseman Andy McDonald might have gotten his hand on the puck
as it was sailing by, deflecting it just enough to elude Mason and get the Caps
on the board.For Chimera it was his 300th
point in the NHL. The odd part of the moment was that the goal was originally
credited to Joel Ward, thus taking Chimera off the scoring line (Green and
Ovechkin with the original assists).

After Alex Ovechkin got the Caps within two 6:35 into the
third period, the Caps struck again just 2:50 later.Late in a 4-on-4 situation, Troy Brouwer got
things going when, from his own blue line, he sent the puck up to Jack Hillen
just as he was being spilled to the ice when his skate and that of Claude
Giroux got tangled up.Hillen chased
down the puck along the back wall and nudged it along to Nicklas
Backstrom.Coming out from behind the
Flyers net Backstrom returned the puck to Hillen at the right wing wall along
the goal line extended.

As this was going on the Flyers lost track of Brouwer, last
seen tumbling to the ice at his own blue line.He got up and made his way back on the weak side of the play.It was there that Hillen found him with a
pass that Brouwer one-timed past Mason to get the Caps within a goal at
4-3.For Brouwer it was his 200th
NHL point.It would be as close as the
Caps would get, though.After the Flyers
and Caps exchanged goals mid-way through the period the Flyers cashed in on an
empty net goal with 52 seconds left for the 6-4 win.

Photo: Len Redkoles/NHLI via Getty Images

March 14, 2014: Washington 4 – Vancouver 3

The Caps needed a win…badly.Losers of five of their previous six games (1-4-1), including both ends
of a home-and-home to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Caps took the ice against
the Vancouver Canucks.The Canucks were
made to order for the struggling Caps.They had a 2-4-1 record in tier previous seven games, their wins coming
against hapless Calgary and Winnipeg.

It was the Caps getting the early lead on a goal by Joel
Ward.It was matched, however, by a
Vancouver goal by Jordan Schroeder barely three minutes later.That was how the teams went to the first
intermission, an interlude that would be followed by “The Evgeny Kuznetsov
Show.”Seven minutes into the second
period Vancouver’s Tom Sestito made the mistake of hooking Tom Wilson, not for
how Wilson might respond (he didn’t), but for what followed with Sestito in the
penalty box.A minute into the ensuing
power play Joel Ward won a faceoff in the Canucks’ end back to John Carlson at
the right point.Carlson fed the puck to
Alex Ovechkin for a one-timer that sailed high and wide past goalie Eddie
Lack.The puck skittered along the
glass, dropping at the feet of Kuznetsov along the right wing boards.He fed Carlson, and Carlson gave Ovechkin
another chance.He did not miss,
one-timing the puck past Lack to give the Caps the lead and Kuznetsov his first
NHL point.

Then fans got a glimpse of Kuznetsov’s vision and
skill.It started in the Caps’ end when
Mike Green sent the puck across to Jack Hillen.From there Hillen sent the puck ahead to Jay Beagle heading out of the
defensive zone.At the red line
Beagle fed Kuznetsov at the Canucks’ blue line in front of the players’
bench.After taking a couple of steps
down the left wing Kuznetsov would up for a slap shot.However, with Beagle charging for the net a
passing lane opened up, and Kuznetsov took advantage of it, hitting Tom Wilson
in stride with a pass.Wilson snapped
the puck over Lack’s glove and in to give the Caps a 3-1 lead 12:35 into the
second period.

The two-goal lead did not hold up, though.Vancouver scored a pair of goals 3:06 apart
early in the third period to tie the game.The tie would not last another three minutes.Kuznetsov did the heavy lifting, working the
puck around the back of the Vancouver net with Canuck defenseman Alexander
Edler hanging on. He put on the
brakes in the left wing corner, spun the other way and hit Nicklas Backstrom at
the near post.Backstrom circled back around
the Vancouver net and found Mike Green at the top of the right wing circle.Green slid to his left, then wristed the puck
through a clot of bodies past Lack to give the Caps their last lead of the
night, Kuznetsov getting his third point of the contest.When it was over, Kuznetsov had
his first NHL point and first multi-point game in the Caps’ 4-3 win.

Photo: Rob Carr/Getty Images

March 30, 2014: Nashville 4 – Washington 3 (OT/SO)

April 13, 2014: Tampa Bay 1 - Washington 0 (OT/SO)

The last “game” that mattered individually among the
Capitals in their 2013-2014 season is a two-fer, a reminder of the passage of
time.On March 30th Mike
Green appeared in his 500th NHL game.It was a long night for the nine-year
veteran.He led all players for both
teams with 34:08 of ice time, the most ice time he logged all season by more
than three minutes and a career high in the regular season.He
also had an assist on the evening, but the Caps dropped a 4-3 trick shot
competition to the Nashville Predators.

When Nicklas Backstrom took the ice on April 13th
against Tampa Bay, it was his 82nd game of the season.In doing so he became the third player in
franchise history to appear in 82 games four times in his career, tying Dale
Hunter and Brook Laich for the all-time franchise lead.It was the first time he played in all 82
games of a season since the 2009-2010 campaign. For Backstrom it was as frustrating a night as
it was for everyone else, given that no goals were scored by either team in the
hockey portion of the evening.He did
tie for the team lead in shots, though, and won 12 of 20 faceoffs in addition to
tying for the team lead in blocked shots (three).

Photo: John Russell/NHLI via Getty Images

And with that the 2013-2014 season is over so far as our
look back is concerned.It was a
disappointing season, but one that had its moments, too.Let’s hope there are more good ones than bad
ahead as we look forward to the 2014-2015 season.

Sunday, June 22, 2014

Last Friday we wrapped up our look at ten games that mattered in the 2013-2014 season for the Washington Capitals.
Seven wins, three losses on the road to what would be a disappointing
season.Those were games that mattered
in the schedule.But there were ten
other games that mattered from an individual standpoint, milestone achievements
in the careers of several Capitals that deserve a measure of recognition.In Part I we look at the milestones achieved
in the 2013 portion of the season.

October 14, 2013:Washington 4 – Edmonton 2

It was one of those plays on which a player knows his
place.The Caps had just taken a 2-1
lead over the Oilers ten minutes into the second period when they worked the
puck in the Oiler zone three minutes later.Nicklas Backstrom and Alex Ovechkin combined to work the puck off the
wall in the left wing corner, nudging it out to the top of the left wing
circle.Marcus Johansson cocked his
stick as if to attempt a one-timer, but yielded to Ovechkin coming off the
wall.

Ovechkin curled around Johansson and fired a shot that went
wide.Johansson, who filled in on the
weak side as Ovechkin circled to the middle for his shot, continued around the
net to put himself in position to collect the errant shot.Johansson followed along the wall until he
had a passing lane to Ovechkin.His pass
was one-timed past goalie Jason LaBarbera to give the Caps a 3-1 lead.It was the game-winning goal and Johansson’s
100th NHL point.

November 2, 2013: Washington 3 – Florida 2 (OT/SO)

The Panthers had just tied their contest with the Caps at a
goal apiece eight minutes into the second period.But just 36 seconds later the Capitals got
the lead back.It started when the Caps
pressured Scott Gomez into giving up the puck in the offensive end.Michael Latta scooped it up and turned up
ice.Latta carried it all the way into
the Florida end where, from the left wing, he spotted John Carlson cruising
down the middle.Latta slid the puck
across, and Carlson wristed it over goalie Scott Clemmensen’s blocker to
restore the Caps’ lead, record his first goal of the season, and mark the
ledger with his 100th NHL point.

It was a lead the Caps could not hold. Tomas Fleischmann scored on a power play with less than three minutes left in regulation time to tie the game. The Caps, however, made good on all three attempts in the freestyle portion of the contest, and they had the second of what would be a four-game winning streak to open November.

November 5, 2013: Washington 6 – New York Islanders 2

The Caps and Islanders spent the first 25 minutes going back
and forth.The Isles opened the scoring
in the first period, then the Caps hit for a pair 75 seconds apart early in the
second period.The Islanders tied the
game just 17 seconds after the Caps’ second goal, and it looked as if this
would be a high scoring game.It would
be, but not for both teams.Marcus
Johansson gave the Caps the lead 6:50 into the second period, setting up the
critical moment.

Tom Wilson started it by skating the puck out of his own end
up the left wing.At his own blue line
he backhanded a cross-ice pass to Steve Oleksy, who carried it down the right
side.When Oleksy gained the offensive
zone he passed the puck back to Wilson heading for the net.Wilson received the puck but was hooked off
his skates by a diving John Tavares just as Wilson was going to shoot.The puck followed the sliding Wilson,
enabling him to fling the puck out from the seat of his pants through the legs
of the Isles Josh Bailey and out to Alexander Urbom.From the top of the left wing circle Urbom
let fly with a slap shot that beat goalie Evgeni Nabokov for Urbom’s first goal
with the Caps and Wilson’s first NHL point.

The game turned into a laugher from there, the Caps carrying a 5-2 lead
into the third period.With the clock
ticking down to four minutes left the Caps had one more score left in them.With Thomas Hickey in the box on a holding
penalty, the Caps had a faceoff to Nabokov’s right.Mikhail Grabovski would take the draw, Alex
Ovechkin was at the top of the circle, and Tom Wilson was on the left wing hash
marks.Grabovski fought Casey Cizikas to
a draw on the faceoff, allowing Ovechkin to step up and gather the puck.Wilson circled out and around the faceoff
circle and filled in the slot.As
Ovechkin inched down the wall he spied a lane to Wilson and used it.Wilson redirected Ovechkin’s pass past
Nabokov for his first NHL goal.Wilson
would complete the “Tom Wilson Hat Trick” with a ten-minute misconduct penalty
with seven seconds left.What a night…
first point, first goal, first misconduct penalty.

November 12, 2013: Washington 4 – Columbus 3 (OT)

If you are going to score a milestone goal, make it
count.That was the case when the Caps
hosted the Columbus Blue Jackets in November.The Jackets appeared to be in position to steal a game from the Caps,
scoring two goals less than three minutes apart mid-way through the third
period to take a 3-2 lead.But the
visitors didn’t have quite so firm a grip on that lead.

With less than two minutes left the Caps were pressuring the
Columbus net.Nate Schmidt fired a shot
from the left wing circle that was deflected, but not past goalie Sergey
Bobrovsky.Joel Ward jumped on the loose
puck and sent it back out to Schmidt.From there it was out to Mike Green at the top of the zone, then over to
Jason Chimera who fired.His shot was
stopped by the skate of defenseman James Wisniewski, but Wisniewski could not
find the puck.Mikhail Grabovski
did.He jumped in and roofed a shot over
Bobrovsky’s left shoulder to tie the game with just 1:45 left.It was Grabovski’s 100th NHL goal,
and it sent the game to overtime where Alex Ovechkin would win it 94 seconds
into the extra frame.

December 20, 2013: Washington 4 – Carolina 2

Mention the number “400” in Carolina, and chances are that
thoughts turn to an upcoming NASCAR race.In December, though, the number “400” had a hockey theme, and it would
be shared by two Capitals.For Mikhail
Grabovski it was his 400th NHL game.It would not be an especially memorable one in terms of his numbers (no
points in 14 minutes), but for a teammate it would be a more memorable night on
the ice, if in a bit of an odd way.

The Caps took a 3-2 lead against the Hurricanes into the
third period.Neither the Caps nor the
Hurricanes could add to their totals in the first 19 minutes of the period,
though.Caps goalie Philipp Grubauer turned aside
all 13 Carolina shots he saw over those 19 minutes, while Carolina netminder Cam Ward was a
perfect 9-for-9 on Capitals’ shots.In
the 20th minute the Hurricanes pulled Ward for an extra
attacker.They managed to apply pressure
in the Caps’ end with Eric Staal working the puck around the wall and out to
Justin Faulk at the left point.Faulk
wristed a shot at the Washington net, but it was blocked in front by Martin
Erat.From the low slot in front of
Grubauer, Erat flipped the puck out to Nicklas Backstrom at the blue line. From there Backstrom threw the puck out into space in
the neutral zone where Alex Ovechkin chased it down.Shrugging off a diving attempt by Staal to
interrupt his progress, Ovechkin skated in and scored the empty net insurance
goal, his 400th NHL goal scored in the building in which he was
drafted by the Capitals in 2004.He
became the sixth-fastest player in NHL history to score 400 goals, doing it in
634 games.Only Wayne Gretzky (436),
Mike Bossy (506), Mario Lemieux (508), Brett Hull (520) and Jari Kurri (608) were
faster to 400.It was the 22nd
empty net goal of his career but the only one Ovechkin would have in the
2013-2014 season.

Friday, June 20, 2014

The last of the ten games that mattered to the Washington
Capitals in the 2013-2014 was quite literally the last game that mattered. A playoff spot was still possible, and there
was still a player on the brink of a momentous achievement.

April 8, 2014: Washington (35-30-13) at St. Louis (52-19-7)

Result: Capitals 4 – Blues 1

The Background: With
just four games left in the 2013-2014 season the Capitals’ post season hopes
were hanging by a thread. On the day
the Caps would face the Blues, Washington was four points behind the Columbus
Blue Jackets for the last playoff spot.
It was likely that the Caps would have to win out to have even the
slightest chance at overtaking Columbus.
They were on shaky ground in terms of any likelihood of sweeping their
last four games. The Blues were waking
up with the best record in the Western Conference, even after losing
consecutive games to Colorado and Chicago.
The Caps came into this game on a win over the New York Islanders, but
that went to the Gimmick and broke what had been a five-game losing streak for
the Caps (0-3-2).

Why It Mattered: Scottrade Center was not a good place for the Capitals to spend a hockey game. In their previous ten trips to St. Louis,
Washington had a 1-8-1 record. On the
other hand, the Blues had 28 wins at home going into this game, tied for second
most home wins in the league. The Caps
played the Blues even for much of the first period, though. Through the first 16 minutes the Blues held a
7-5 lead in shots, but the game was scoreless.
Then, with 3:37 left in the opening frame Derek Roy was sent to the
penalty box for hooking Alex Ovechkin, unleashing the Caps’ lethal power play…
you would think.

In the first 90 seconds of the Caps’ man advantage the Blues
recorded the only two shots on goal, although one was officially recorded as
being from 163 feet. In the 91st
second, things changed on an odd play that ended in familiar fashion. It started when Jason Chimera left the puck
for Evgeny Kuznetsov along the right wing wall
Kuznetsov, occupying the spot Nicklas Backstrom would usually man,
scanned the ice and tried to hit Joel Ward in the middle of the Caps’ 1-3-1.
The pass was slightly off the mark, and Ward had no play but to try to stop the
puck with his skate. What he ended up
doing was kicking it back to John Carlson at the top of the offensive
zone. Carlson laid the puck out for Alex
Ovechkin at the left wing faceoff circle, and Ovechkin one-timed the puck past
goalie Ryan Miller, off the far post and in to give the Caps a 1-0 lead that
they took to the first intermission. It
was Ovechkin’s 50th goal of the season.

The Blues tied it early in the second period when Maxim
Lapierre put back a rebound of a Steve Ott shot past goalie Braden Holtby at
the 2:39 mark after the Caps failed several times to clear the puck out of
their own end. That might have swung the
momentum to the home team, but neither team could light the lamp over the next
six minutes. It would be the Caps
breaking the tie in the ninth minute of the period. With the teams playing 4-on-4 the play started
with Mikhail Grabovski and Eric Fehr heading up ice on a 2-on-2 rush. Grabovski curled in front of Fehr and wristed
a shot at Miller, but he fanned on the attempt.
He recovered the puck in stride and turned around the left wing faceoff
circle, then stepped up to the faceoff dot where he fired a slap shot at
Miller. The shot beat Miller cleanly
past his blocker.

The Caps added to their lead late in the second period when
Nicklas Backstrom made the pipe his friend as Ovechkin did in the first
period. Backstrom worked a give-and-go
with Ovechkin, starting the sequence when he passed the puck to Ovechkin on the
right wing at the red line. Ovechkin
skated the puck down the wall into the Blues’ zone and waited until the defense
backed off. Backstrom eased off the
throttle a bit to give Ovechkin a passing lane, and Ovechkin found him,
Backstrom one-timing a snap shot off the post past Miller and in, making it
3-1.

The Caps ended any thought of a Blues comeback in the first
minute of the third period. With Jaden
Schwartz in the penalty box for the Blues, Backstrom converted on the power
play when he took a cross-ice feed from Ovechkin, took a step inside to change
his shooting angle, then wristed the puck past Miller for game’s last tally
just 16 seconds into the period. The
Blues outshot the Caps, 9-1, over the rest of the period, but Holtby turned all
of them aside, the Caps skating off with a 4-1 win.

The Takeaway: The win
kept the Caps in the playoff hunt, if only briefly. The Blue Jackets won their game against the
Phoenix Coyotes on the same night, then beat the Dallas Stars on the following
night to clinch the last playoff spot and eliminate the Capitals. It meant that the Caps would be shut out of
the post-season for the first time since 2007.

There was the matter of Ovechkin’s 50th goal,
though. It was the fifth time in nine
seasons he hit that mark. Since he came
into the league in 2005-2006 he had more 5-goal seasons any other player in the
league, more than twice as many as Dany Heatley, Ilya Kovalchuk, or Steven
Stamkos (two apiece).

After this, the Caps had only to play out the string. It was not a long string, just
three games. To their credit, the Caps
went 2-0-1 in those games, the extra time loss coming in a double shutout in
the season’ finale against Tampa Bay that the Caps lost, 1-0, in the
Gimmick. On this night, though, the Caps
would show, if just for one more time, what was possible when the big guns –
Ovechkin (1-2-3) and Backstrom (2-0-2) – were producing, and the team was
getting solid goaltending (28 saves on 29 shots for Holtby). In that sense the game mattered out of a
sense of hope that the Caps could piece together more results like this in
2014-2015.

Thursday, June 19, 2014

The ninth of our ten games that mattered to the Washington
Capitals in the 2013-2014 season was the end of a brutal stretch of the
schedule in which the Caps would play 11 of 13 games against teams that would
qualify for the 2014 playoffs. With the Capitals among four teams tied with 80 points occupying the 7th through 10th places in the conference, it was time to treat these games like playoff games. Who better to do it against than a team steamrolling its way into the playoffs?

March 29, 2014: Boston (50-17-6) at Washington (34-27-12)

Result: Bruins 4 – Capitals 2

The Background: When
the sun came up on March 29th the Capitals were in eighth place in
the Eastern Conference holding the last ticket to the Stanley Cup
playoffs. Holding on to that reservation
on this day would be a formidable task.
For the third time in four weeks the Caps faced off against the Boston
Bruins. This would be the rubber match
of that series, the Caps winning on March 1st and the Bruins winning
on March 6th. Washington came
into this game having played in three consecutive Gimmicks, two losses to the
Los Angeles Kings wrapped around a win in San Jose against the Sharks. Boston was coming off their 50th
win of the season, a 3-0 shutout of the defending champion Chicago
Blackhawks. Since the Bruins lost to the
Caps on March 1st they were 13-0-1 heading into this contest.

Why It Mattered: One might have thought that the Caps caught
a break when Boston head coach Claude Julien called on backup goaltender Chad Johnson
to face the Caps. Trouble was, Johnson
had not lost a game in regulation in more than three months dating back to a
4-3 loss against the Ottawa Senators on December 28th when he
allowed the winning goal in relief of starter Tuukka Rask. Since then he was 10-0-1, 1.82, .934, with
two shutouts in 13 appearances.

At the other end, Braden Holtby went into this game with a
career record against the Bruins of 4-1-0, 2.13, .940. This had the potential to be a goaltenders’
game. It started that way, too. Neither team found the back of the net in the
first period, Johnson turning aside nine Washington shots, while Holtby stopped
15 Bruins’ shots.

Holtby cracked first, though, 2:48 into the second
period. The Bruins caught the Caps being
out of position at the end of a Washington power play. A slashing penalty to Carl Soderberg had just
expired when David Krejci chopped the puck out of the Boston zone to center
ice. Karl Alzner could not settled the
puck at the players’ bench, and the puck bounced onto the stick of
Soderberg. When Alzner’s partner John
Carlson slid over to cover, Soderberg fed Jarome Iginla ceuising down the
middle. With Alzner and Carlson trapped
on the same side of the ice, Iginla had a break. Tom Wilson could not close the distance in
time on the back check, and Iginla snapped the puck low over Holtby’s right pad
to give the Bruins a 1-0 lead.

Soderberg got one of his own just under five minutes later
on a power play when he redirected a Patrice Bergeron shot through Holtby’s
pads. Less than a minute after that it
was Iginla once more. It was Johnny
Boychuk sending the puck up ice this time, trying to find Krejci in front of
the Boston bench. Krejci, who was tied
up with John Erskine, managed to get a stick on the puck giving Iginla a chance
to move it along. Iginla fired a shot
from the right wing faceoff dot that Holtby stopped, but Iginla followed up his
own shot. With Milan Lucic’ presence at
the top of the crease preventing Holtby from diving on the loose puck in front
of him, Iginla retrieved it and slipped it through Holtby’s pads to make it
3-0. It was his 30th goal of
the season making it 12 seasons he reached that mark and only the 12th
player in the last 30 years to hit 30 goals having reached 36 year of age or
older.

The Caps were not entirely out of it, though. Late in the period Washington was cruising
through the neutral zone in numbers.
Mike Green was skating on his off wing when he crossed the Boston blue
line. Boston looked to have the play
covered, though. Brad Marchand cut off
Green’s angle down the wall, and Jason Chimera, who was filling in the middle,
looked to be covered by Johnny Boychuk.
Green sent a pass to Chimera nonetheless, but it was Boychuk’s stick
that redirected the puck into Johnson’s pads.
The goalie could not secure the puck, though, and it was loose just long
enough for Chimera to nudge it the last few feet to make it 3-1 with ten
seconds left in the period.

The Caps could get no closer in the third period. Patrice Bergeron restored the Bruins’
three-goal lead 13 minutes into the period when he cleaned up an unsuccessful
Carl Soderberg attempt off a rebound from a shot by Dougie Hamilton. That pretty much ended the competitive
portion of the game. Evgeny Kuznetsov
scored on a severely angled shot with 55 seconds left, but it was not enough as
the Bruins skated off with a 4-2 win.

The Takeaway: The
Caps started the day in eighth place in the Eastern Conference, holding one of
the eight post-season slots available.
At the end of the day the Caps were in 10th place and would
not find themselves in the top eight again for the rest of the season. For one Capital it might have been especially
frustrating. Alex Ovechkin went his 14th
straight game without an even strength goal, a streak that would eventually
reach 16 games. And, in none of those 16
games was Ovechkin on the plus side of the ledger (minus-19 overall).

It was Ovechkin who captured this game and perhaps the season in the post-game...

"It seems like we [were] afraid to do something out
there, afraid to create the play and we give them easy chances. It's details. We knew they [are a]
physical team but we have to take a hit and make a play. You can see we [were]
not [a] desperate team in the first two periods. We can't play like that."

Too often this season, it seemed, the Caps played like that.

In the end…

This would be the last game that Washington played against
an Eastern Conference playoff team while the Caps were still in the race for a
spot. In those 28 games the Caps
compiled a record of 13-13-2. Four of
the wins came via the Gimmick, as did one of the extra time losses. The Caps found especially difficult sledding
late. In the 2014 portion of the season
they went just 4-9-2 against those eight teams, and with the loss to Boston lost
their last six contests against those playoff teams (0-5-1).

This game put a period on an uncomfortable truth about this
team this season. It was not luck, it
was not injury, it was not sunspots that kept the Caps out of the
playoffs. They just were not good
enough. And that’s why this game
mattered.

WE INTERRUPT OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAMMING

The Washington Capitals ended the 2016-2017 as one of 12 franchises in the NHL never to win a Stanley Cup. Of that group, only the St. Louis Blues (48 seasons), Buffalo Sabres (45 seasons), and Vancouver Canucks (45 seasons) have gone longer never having won a Cup than the Capitals (41 seasons). Six teams came into the league after the Capitals entered the league in 1974-1975 and have won Stanley Cups: Colorado Rockies/New Jersey Devils (1976-1977), Edmonton Oilers (1979-1980), Quebec Nordiques/Colorado Avalanche (1979-1980), Hartford Whalers/Carolina Hurricanes (1979-1980), Tampa Bay Lightning (1992-1993), and the Anaheim Ducks (1993-1994).